The Eve of the Storm

Ingetsu's brows furrowed tightly. He couldn't help but marvel at how much more absurd this mission could get.

Contempt in his heart.

Honesty on his lips.

"Load all the people on the ground into the carts and keep moving!"

As Ingetsu spoke, he jumped down from the cart bed, picked up the two coachmen, and casually tossed them into the bed of the second cart.

At this sight,

Kurenai Yuhi and Nonō were the first to act, while Izumi and Mikoto also stepped in to help.

Tamao did not remain stunned either. He hurriedly picked up the woman he had carried back and prepared to dump her by the roadside and bury her.

Burying the bodies was just a matter of Earth Release.

Since his big brother had said to bury her, he naturally could not let her corpse lie exposed in the wilderness.

"..."

Hotaru sat weakly in the cart bed, her gemlike eyes fixed on the Uchihas helping her clansmen. She suddenly found herself conflicted.

These Uchihas did not seem as bad as she had thought.

Especially that S-Rank Missing-nin, Uchiha Ingetsu. With a single word from him, he could have ignored all of her clansmen.

Since most of the caravan members were lying in the cart beds, the Uchihas tossed the coachmen into the carts, then, following Ingetsu's instructions, linked all the carts together with ropes. The task was completed with ease.

Everyone climbed into the carts one after another.

On the lead cart, Tamao fought to act as coachman and snatched the whip from the Uchiha who knew how to drive a cart.

"Giddy-up—"

It was Tamao's first time driving a cart, and he was incredibly excited. After climbing aboard and sitting down, he fiercely lashed the backsides of the two horses.

Smack—

"Whoa—whoa—whoa—"

The two black horses were startled and whinnied. After raising their forelegs high, they charged forward at a gallop.

Everyone in the cart bed was jolted and shaken.

From behind the caravan came Nanfeng's shout:

"I haven't gotten on yet!!"

"I haven't gotten on yet!"

The wind howled, and the scenery receded.

"Woohoo—" Feeling the breath of freedom, Tamao could not help letting out a howl.

He did not care about Nanfeng. As long as his big brother was sitting in the cart bed, that was enough—even if his big brother's face was dark at that moment.

As the lead cart surged forward,

the entire caravan accelerated, dragging billowing clouds of dust behind it like a string of linked steam trains racing freely across the land.

"..."

Kurenai Yuhi and Izumi, sitting to Ingetsu's left and right, occasionally pressed against him.

Izumi accidentally ended up lying on her side in Ingetsu's arms. Then she simply lay there without moving, immediately gaining an immense sense of security—and Kurenai's contempt.

"Give me the reins!"

It was not until Nanfeng used the Body Flicker Technique to sit on the cart and snatched the reins from Tamao that the caravan's speed gradually returned to normal.

"Give me the whip too!"

Nanfeng angrily reached out to demand the whip from Tamao, only to see Tamao's expression darken as his childish side emerged. He raised the whip high, his expression clearly saying that he was not going to give it up.

Nanfeng was so angry that his face turned ashen.

He could only turn around and look at Ingetsu.

Inside the cart,

Ingetsu patted Izumi, who was lying in his arms and still reluctant to leave. Blushing, she lowered her head and got up.

Everyone else looked at Ingetsu in unison.

They all wanted to know

how Ingetsu would punish Tamao.

The Uchihas truly had no way to deal with this somewhat young "lunatic" companion. In the whole group, only Ingetsu could control him.

Tamao sensed that the atmosphere was off. He suddenly split his mouth into a standard, brilliant smile.

With his baby face, he looked like a harmless child.

Before his big brother could say anything, Tamao immediately pulled a copy of the Konoha Express from his clothing and handed it over with both hands:

"Here, big brother. I found this reading material on those caravan members when I was moving them just now. You should like it!"

Nanfeng's expression grew even uglier. He thought that this fellow truly stopped at nothing to curry favor with the captain.

Now, Captain Yinyue definitely would not reprimand Tamao. Tamao himself also settled down.

Everyone gazed at the newspaper in unison.

Ingetsu's expression remained unchanged. His attention fell on the newspaper's contents, and he reached out to take it.

In reality, he had never intended to punish Tamao. The boy's nature needed an outlet.

Opening the newspaper with both hands, Ingetsu read its contents by the light of the torches around the cart.

Everyone in the cart bed crowded over. Mikoto also came to Ingetsu's side, while Izumi thoughtfully held up a torch to illuminate the scene for everyone.

They urgently needed information from the outside world.

"Captain Yinyue... S-Rank Missing-nin, bounty of fifty million ryo!!"

Izumi noticed Ingetsu's photograph first. Her brows immediately furrowed, and she looked at the captain with visible concern.

"Huh? We have bounties now? Read them out quickly. How much is everyone's bounty?"

Tamao beamed, tossed the whip in his hand to Nanfeng, turned around, and looked at everyone.

The Uchihas in the other carts also became interested. They all wanted to know how their former villages would value them after they became missing-nin.

Captain Yinyue's bounty was actually fifty million ryo. The Uchihas were filled with emotion, and most of them felt that it was unreasonable—because it was set too low!

"Uchiha Nanfeng, bounty of ten million ryo..."

Izumi loudly read out everyone's bounties. Only at the end did she discover that Tamao's and her own bounties ranked near the bottom, so she awkwardly read:

"Uchiha Tamao, bounty of one and a half million ryo... Uchiha Izumi, bounty of one million ryo."

Upon hearing this, Tamao flew into a rage:

"What? Izumi, did you read it wrong? Why is it that we're all Three Tomoe, Nanfeng is worth ten million ryo, while I'm worth only one and a half million? Is it just because I look harmless and I'm a lunatic?"

Izumi did not know whether to laugh or cry.

"Hahahaha!"

Nanfeng, however, burst into hearty laughter.

It quickly drew the contempt of a group of Uchihas, who secretly decided to keep their distance from Nanfeng in the future.

Everyone grumbled inwardly:

Captain Nanfeng, why are you laughing? Your value clearly doesn't match your strength!

It's dangerous to stay by your side!

Ingetsu's expression gradually turned solemn. He paid no attention to the team's bickering and concentrated on extracting the hidden information behind the newspaper.

Leaf Village had suppressed the matters of the Uchiha Clan Massacre and Danzo. The village's control over its citizens must be extremely strict recently, and the major villages of the Ninja World would not learn of these two major incidents in the short term.

So...

To keep news of the Uchiha Clan Massacre from spreading through the Ninja World too quickly,

even if Ingetsu had not killed Asuma, Sarutobi Hiruzen would probably still find a way to mobilize Leaf Village's strongest forces and wipe out their Uchiha defector squad at the border.

The current tranquility was merely the prelude to a storm.

He was looking forward to it.

For their sake,

how much of its scant remaining strength would Leaf Village and Sarutobi Hiruzen be willing to mobilize?

After finishing the key information in the newspaper, Ingetsu handed it to Izumi beside him and had her take it to the Uchihas in the other carts.

"Leaf Village didn't issue a bounty for me?"

Mikoto looked at Ingetsu, guilt flickering in her eyes as she sought confirmation.

"Mm." Ingetsu looked at Kurenai and said calmly, "They didn't issue a bounty for you either."

Kurenai nodded to show that she understood. She did not care. Aside from some ideals entrusted to her by her father, she had no ties in Leaf Village and could go anywhere.

Ingetsu could roughly guess that Mikoto had not been labeled a missing-nin because Itachi remained in Leaf Village.

As for Kurenai, Leaf Village had yet to ascertain the truth about Asuma's death.

"Once we leave the Earth Spider Clan Territory,

we need to be ready to continue fighting.

Leaf Village will absolutely not let us escape into the Valley of Punishment. So next, they will most likely launch an all-out attack against us..."

Ingetsu spoke calmly.

Yet these words struck like thunder on level ground, plunging all the Uchihas, who had still been arguing over the unfair bounties, into silence.

The caravan had now reached the entrance to the Earth Spider Clan Territory.